Laptops make ER trip even faster

Tuesday

Sep 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2009 at 2:56 PM

The legibility of doctors' handwriting has been the butt of countless jokes in popular culture and is nearly universally associated with poor penmanship. But straining to interpret those sometimes scrawling messages written on patients' charts is a thing of the past for the emergency room staff at Graham Hospital in Canton. The hospital's doctors and nurses have begun using mobile computer stations that allow them to enter patient information into a laptop with the click of a button instead of with the click of a pen.

Kevin Sampier

The legibility of doctors' handwriting has been the butt of countless jokes in popular culture and is nearly universally associated with poor penmanship.

But straining to interpret those sometimes scrawling messages written on patients' charts is a thing of the past for the emergency room staff at Graham Hospital in Canton.

The hospital's doctors and nurses have begun using mobile computer stations that allow them to enter patient information into a laptop with the click of a button instead of with the click of a pen.

But hurried handwriting isn't the main reason the hospital purchased the seven mobile work stations for about $258,000 from T-Systems Inc.

Other benefits include less time filling out paperwork by hand, which means less waiting for patients who can now move through the department faster.

The system also eliminates paper waste and wasted time. Instead of waiting for physical copies of a patient's medical history or lab results, the system connects to other departments in the hospital and can share information instantly.

"We would have to call medical records and have them bring up a copy," Alton said. "There was a lot of paper, killing a lot of trees."

Switching to an electronic system also eliminates a duplication of work. Nurses say in the past, they would sometimes have to double- and even triple-check chart information.

Alton said the system has been extremely well-received by nurses and doctors, who say the software streamlines the work they do in a typically fast-paced setting where time is always a factor.

"It's so easy to learn," said Dr. Dwayne Bernard, who works in the emergency room. "In one little click, you can find out what (a patient's) history is. In about three seconds, I can look up (the) documents."

Hospital CEO Bob Senneff said the system also has been an improvement from a financial standpoint.

"We're able to charge more appropriately," he said, noting that with the old handwriting system, services that may have been ordered and then changed still may have ended up on a patient's bill.

Nurse Mandy Waldo uses the system on a daily basis and said it'sa great improvement.